My current project involves MS SQL Server 2000 and its Data Transformation Services (DTS), which is basically an ETL tool with a Microsoft slant. You can write ActiveX scripts as part of a package, and language choices include VBScript, JScript, and PerlScript. Having previously endured the punishment that is writing VBScript, I immediately installed ActiveState's distribution, which includes PerlScript.
Perlscript came up with no hitches, and I found some excellent docs on working with Win32/OLE/COM (or whatever it's called these days....) at Dave Roth's web site, and, as always, the monastery is a great resource.
But it's still all very weird for me. I'm not used to enumerating OLE collections, or having STDOUT disappear down a black hole. It's been a while since I've felt uncomfortable writing Perl; it's like there's grease on the keyboard. I look at what I have to do and I don't have an immediate reaction of how to do it. It's like walking down a formerly familiar street, but all the houses are tilted 45 degrees now.
I'm sure it's just a matter of getting used to it, but at the moment, it's still weird.
